Buffalo Bills 13, New York Jets 7: Second-half open thread

The Buffalo Bills jumped out to an early lead over the New York Jets, leading 10-0 after two offensive possessions. However, the Jets were able to withstand the initial outburst and hang close.

A hot start from Josh Allen gave the Bills that early lead, but the Jets’ defense buckled down and held Buffalo scoreless in the second quarter.

The wind certainly played a factor, as each team scored only when it had the wind at its back. Buffalo scored in the first quarter with the wind, and the Jets scored in the second quarter with the wind.

Buffalo scored on a ten-yard touchdown pass from Allen to Stefon Diggs, who dragged his right foot and tapped his left in the front corner of the end zone. Tyler Bass nailed a 41-yard field goal to make it 10-0.

The Jets converted on 4th & 5 with Zach Wilson hitting Keelan Cole Sr. on a slant for a 40-yard touchdown. The touchdown, coming after a shanked punt from Matt Haack late in the second quarter, drew the Jets closer to Buffalo and made it 10-7. The singular play represented nearly all of New York’s total offense for the half, as the Jets gained just 69 yards total for the half.

After forcing the Jets to punt, Buffalo went to work on a nice two-minute drill. Allen drilled perfect passes to Cole Beasley and Diggs to move to midfield. Allen overthrew Gabriel Davis for what would have been a walk-in touchdown, but he went right back to Davis to move Buffalo into field goal range. Allen scrambled and lateraled to Dawson Knox in what looked eerily similar to the attempted lateral from the Wild Card game against the Houston Texans in the 2019 playoffs.

The Bills and head coach Sean McDermott decided to kick a field goal after that sound two-minute execution. Bass hit the 21-yard kick to make it 13-7.

This is your second-half thread, folks. Here’s hoping that we’ll be celebrating an AFC East title in around 90 minutes.